London -LRB- CNN -RRB- -- Whatever the literary merits of J.K. Rowling 's new novel , the Harry Potter author is unlikely to earn many plaudits for the originality of her subject matter .

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With a plot examining social tensions and class divisions between the rich and poor residents of an English village , `` The Casual Vacancy '' is a modern take on themes that have provided fertile inspiration for dramatists , novelists and satirists of English manners since at least the 17th century .

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`` We 're a phenomenally snobby society and it 's such a rich seam , '' Rowling said in an interview with The Guardian newspaper by way of explanation , in words that might as well have been attributed to Jane Austen , George Eliot , Joanna Trollope or any number of other female British writers . `` The middle class is so funny , it 's the class I know best , and it 's the class where you find the most pretension . ''

Still , Rowling clearly has an authorial eye for the preoccupations of her middle-brow audience . Britain can sometimes feel like a country in the midst of a permanent , low-intensity class war in which all targets are fair game and all are left feeling routinely persecuted .

While the wealthy and privileged are derided as snobs and `` toffs , '' members of the working class are grotesquely parodied and vilified as illiterate `` chavs '' and the middle class is roundly mocked , often from within its own fragmented ranks , for its petit bourgeois obsessions with house prices , farmers ' markets and amateur dramatics .

Julian Fellowes , the script writer behind lavish Emmy-nominated period saga `` Downton Abbey '' complained last year that `` poshism '' was the `` last acceptable form of prejudice '' , while Benedict Cumberbatch , the well-heeled star of `` Sherlock '' said last month he had contemplated relocating his career to the U.S. because `` posh-bashing '' in the UK had gone too far .

At the opposite extreme , Owen Jones , the author of `` Chavs : The Demonization of the Working Class , '' argued that the widespread blaming of last year 's riots in London and other cities on a supposed feral underclass was `` classic demonization , reducing complex social problems to supposed individual failings and behavioral faults . ''

Class , swearing and sex fill J.K. Rowling 's first adult book

If Rowling needed any further evidence of the enduring power of issues of class and status to raise British heckles , it came last week in the blundering form of Andrew Mitchell , a senior member of Prime Minister David Cameron 's cabinet , whose job as chief whip is still in the balance over whether or not , during an altercation with a policeman , he called the officer a `` pleb '' and suggested that he ought to `` learn his f ****** place . ''

For critics of Cameron 's government , Mitchell 's alleged insult and the fact that , like the Eton-educated prime minister and many of his colleagues , he attended one of the UK 's elite fee-paying public schools appeared to offer further proof of a blue-blooded conspiracy to keep the proles firmly in their place .

As Kevin Maguire wrote in the Mirror newspaper : `` In Mitchell 's angry flash of social superiority ... we glimpsed the naked prejudice of the posh boys sitting at the cabinet table . The mask slipped to reveal how voters , the great British public , are viewed as inferior creatures , drones expected to know their place and tug a forelock at Conservative rulers in their government castle . ''

Yet there are good reasons , aside from unvarnished prejudice , why class remains such a potent political issue . For those worst affected by the present government 's austerity program , portrayed by opponents as an ideologically motivated assault on the founding principles of Britain 's welfare state , the `` We 're all in it together '' mantra coined by British Finance Minister George Osborne -- the heir to a baronetcy and a multimillion dollar wallpaper fortune -- understandably rings hollow .

Class remains the single most important factor in shaping the life prospects of every single person born in Britain ; a fact most glaringly illustrated in terms of life expectancy itself , with men in the most deprived areas of the Scottish city of Glasgow typically dying at 71 , while those in London 's wealthy enclave of Kensington and Chelsea can expect to live beyond 85 .

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At the heart of the British class structure still sits the English public school , the best known archetype of which is now probably Rowling 's own Hogwarts -- a place of arcane rituals and Latin lessons , bunk-bedded boarding houses and Gothic grandeur .

Real-life public schools may not offer lessons in magic and wizardry , but they do equip the offspring of those willing to cough up annual fees of tens of thousands of dollars with access to a world of privileged connections and a fast track via a well-oiled `` old boys ' network '' into lucrative and successful careers in the upper echelons of politics , government , the military , the judiciary , banking and business .

About 7 % of English pupils attend fee-paying schools yet alumni of the top 100 public schools make up almost one third of annual admissions to Oxford and Cambridge -- universities whose own peculiar traditions owe more to their archaic ties to those institutions than to the rigors of a modern , egalitarian education system .

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Former public schoolboys even punch above their weight on our screens , with two of Britain 's leading actors -- Damian Lewis , an Emmy winner this week for his starring role in `` Homeland '' , and Dominic West , celebrated for his portrayal of a rough-edged Irish-American detective in `` The Wire '' -- both also alumni of Eton .

It remains to be seen whether Rowling has anything novel to add to the class debate , but one thing of which she is undoubtedly aware is that it is a subject that will shift copies from the shelves in droves .

As `` Downton Abbey '' and the entire careers of Hugh Grant and Richard Curtis have demonstrated there remains an insatiable appetite beyond British shores for the sort of cut-glass accents , excruciating social awkwardness and polite self-effacement that the country has turned into a thriving export industry .

Rowling , famously canny businesswoman that she is , will surely already have negotiated movie rights to a story that will be lapped up as eagerly across the Atlantic .

Social class , swearing and sex permeate Rowling 's first adult book

The opinions in this piece are solely those of Simon Hooper .

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J.K. Rowling 's new novel , `` The Casual Vacancy , '' is author 's first book aimed at adults

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Plot examines social tensions and class divisions in English village

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Simon Hooper : Britain feels like country in midst of low-intensity class war

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Rowling is aware class is subject that will shift copies in droves , he adds